


Monsters Don't Sleep (Part 6)

by QuietDarkness



Series: Simplicity and Complexity (Harrisco) [37]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 17:34:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13392816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuietDarkness/pseuds/QuietDarkness
Summary: Cisco finds Harry in a hell of his own making. Saving him might turn out to be harder than he thinks. But when the dust settles, life has a way of putting the pieces back in place, as long as they remember where they started...'Opposites don't just attract. They catch fire and burn the entire city down.'(Part 37)





	Monsters Don't Sleep (Part 6)

“He who defends with Love will be secure; Heaven will save him, and protect him with Love.” -Lao Tzu

* * *

“I know we've gone over everything a hundred times, but I'm still not sure about this...” Caitin said, holding Cisco's goggles in her hands, turning them slowly as she watched Cisco move stiffly to sit in the chair that had been set up beside Harry's bed. “I had to overdose you on adrenaline to wake you up last time.” She repeated for about the millionth time. Cisco winced a little, then settled, looking up at her and giving her a short smile.

“I didn't use my goggles last time. This time, I will. So no worries, right?” he winked at her, and she nearly scowled at him. “Come on, Caitlin. When have I ever steered you wrong?”

“Do I need to bring up the bananas and mustard again?” She deadpanned.

“Ooh, right.” He cringed a little, then held his hand out. She let a slow sigh out of her nostrils, but handed him his goggles. “Still sorry bout that, by the way.” He smirked, and she shook her head at him, though managed a smile of her own.

“One more time, so I'm totally up to speed here...” Jesse said, rounding her father's bed, a hand smoothing over Harry's still leg.

“Well, she was drunk and I told her tha-” Cisco began.

“I was not drunk!” Caitlin blurted, crossing her arms over her chest. “I had one tequila.”

“One? Try more like four. And beer. You were totally hammered. Don't try to deny it.” He pointed accusingly at her.

“Not that... whatever you're talking about.” Jesse raised a brow, glancing from Cisco to Caitlin and back again. “I'm talking about what you're going to do to my Dad.” She said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

“Oh, that!” Cisco said, and Jesse chuckled a little. “Thought we were still talking about the bananas.”

“Head in the game, fly boy.” Caitlin chided, then nudged his head gently before moving to check on Harry's IV. Cisco scowled. 

“You started it!” He groused, then opened his goggles. “I'm going to... sleep vibe. Go to the in-between, and find the path the Watcher showed me. Once I get back to Harry, I just have to get him to step back through the Clearing, the... four edged hole.” He furrowed his brows as he spoke, knowing how it sounded. But all those languages, all those words he shouldn't have understood but did had told him what to do. “Once he's on the path, his mind and...” he cleared his throat a little, meeting Jesse's gaze, “Spirit... _Harry_... should find his way back on his own.” He snapped his fingers lightly. “Just like that.”

“And he'll wake up?” She asked, looking at her father's unmoving face. Cisco nodded lightly.

“That's the theory.” He turned his head, just enough to see what Jesse was seeing. Harry could have just been sleeping, if any of them didn't know any better. And yet, there was something just too impossibly still about how he looked. Something... empty.

_That hollow in me, that terrible darkness I feel? It's fear... I'm afraid of forgetting them all... afraid of losing them... and surviving it... I can't think of a worse hell than that..._

Cisco pushed that out of his head instantly, Harry's own words in his audio logs coming back to him. He shifted in his chair uncomfortably as Barry came back in the room, Iris right behind him. “Okay, Joe had to get back to the station. Wally's on patrol. So,” he stopped near the other side of Harry, slipping his hands into his pockets. They'd rounded up the last of the bugs hours ago. Doctor Stein was on his way back to Star City. “Ready when you are.” Barry said, offering a reassuring smile.

Cisco nodded, looking down at the goggles in his hand. “Right.” He began to lift them, but then stopped the moment Maggie pushed up from where she was sitting on the floor and rushed over to him. 

She was just hugging him, holding him so tight that at first he wasn't sure what to do. And yeah, it really hurt his back. But there was such an intensity to her hold, a shaking in her arms, a deep greed to the clinginess of her fingers that he just closed his eyes and lifted one hand to hold her in return. 

“I love you,” she whispered shakily, “I love you both. Please,” her voice cracked, “I want both of my dads back, okay?” 

And just like that, she let go and backed up, eyes wet... but determined, and so damn alive. Jesse's eyes were wet, too. And wordlessly she reached out and took Maggie's hand. Cisco nodded slowly, letting out a shaken breath of his own. 

_Hear that, Harry?_ He thought, _She called us her dads..._ He swallowed, really wishing Harry could have heard her.

Then, without another word from himself or anyone else, he put the goggles on and relaxed.

It was time to bring Harry home...

 

* * *

“Lost is not a place. It's a soul in paralysis, waiting to be moved...” -Unknown

* * *

_Cisco Ramon..._

_I've watched you._

_You can manipulate the vibrational energies of reality. Your psychic link to the natural energies of reality allow you to connect to the various vibrations of the multiverse and manipulate them. Your 'vibing', as you like to call it, allows you to perceive various events throughout time and space, past and future, as well as parallel dimensions. You can alter someone's perspective during your vibes, communicate with them should you choose, and your dream vibes are simply a further step in the evolution of your power._

_With your natural connection to the multiverse, you can open portals to other dimensions. With your hands, you can focus powerful concussive blasts of vibrations capable of incapacitating your enemies. In my many thousands of years of wandering and watching, I have seen so few like you. And very few as strong. As you continue to master your abilities and grow with them, more of your metahuman self will open up to you._

_But, my dear Cisco, of all the things you can do... of all the things you are capable of... what I have witnessed is that it is your human heart that is strongest of all, and most capable of aiding you in this situation._

_Your compassion for others, your humor and fealty, your ability to pull light into the darkest places with nothing but good intention? Your grit, your unwavering faith in those you hold dearest, the solid weight of your truth? Your need for family, home? These are your strongest weapons in every battle life has to offer you. One of the greatest of which befalls you now._

_A battle which will need your most unyielding weapon of all..._

_Your complete and immovable love._

_Because, though Harrison Wells was sent to this place by the Change to protect him, his inner darkness has taken him. He is well and truly lost. His time on my planet cost him far more than I realized. He is a soul in turmoil, trapped in purgatory, lost and losing hope._

_Because for all he has tried to hold on to who and what he loves most, being sent to this place now has allowed the darkness that infected him while he was on 714 to completely take hold._

_Cisco... it's tearing down the walls, and dragging away the best parts of himself. Stealing his memories, stealing... Jesse, Maggie, the team... you._

_His soul won't survive that..._

_Bring him back to the light, Cisco._

_Remind him who he is. Show him. Give him back what he's losing._

_Love him._

_And bring him home..._

* * *

“Harry...” 

He was sitting on the floor, one leg stretched out among debris and rubble, his other bent, booted foot flat on the floor, one arm hung over his knee, hand draped. His head was back against the wall, the paint peeling and almost rotten looking. There was barely any light, a shadowed flourish splashed across his features that shifted whenever the wind blew through the broken windows and wafted the ratty curtains, somehow making him seem older, exhausted, beyond beaten. And his eyes...

There was no light to them. Just the blue they used to be. But filled with what Cisco could only describe as a fractured, terrible sorrow that didn't match the emptiness of Harry's expression. It was too much to witness. It made everything in Cisco hurt. His heart choked, pushing him to move toward Harry.

But when Harry saw him, it wasn't joy or relief that crossed his features. It was confusion, then anger as Harry scrambled to his feet, stepping back and away, hands in fists as though waiting to defend himself from... a stranger. “How did you get in here?!” He demanded, his voice hoarse, as though he'd been yelling. He stood tall, stopping near a table with barely anything left on it, broken pieces of ceiling tile littering one end. “Get out.” He stated firmly. So damn immovable.

Cisco stood there frozen with his hands up through it all, eyes wide, unsure. What was Harry seeing? Who was he seeing? He glanced around, catching his own reflection in a spider-web-cracked mirror the length of a filing cabinet. Huh. 

“Harry, it's me... Cisco.” He said then, lowering his hands out flat in a friendly gesture when he looked at him again. He knew that this dark and terrible hell of a place wasn't real, but he felt a shiver run up his spine as a breeze pushed through the broken windows, whistling out its intent through the cracked and shattered panes. Harry seemed unfazed, narrowing his gaze, looking Cisco up and down. Then shook his head. 

“I don't know you.” He nearly spat at him, so much vile and anger in his tone that it stung to hear it. 

“You don't...” Cisco let the words die in his mouth, because hearing Harry say them was bad enough. “Yes you do, Harry. You know me.” He took a step forward, and Harry lifted a hand, pointing at him with a shake of his head.

“Don't.” One word, Harry's specialty. But it was all he needed to get his point across. Harry would hurt him if he came closer. Cisco stayed where he was... for now.

“Listen to me... you know me. I'm your husband. Cisco Ramon. See?” He raised his hand, glad to see the visage of his ring had followed him to this place. “You have one, too.” He pointed to Harry's hand then. It was dirty, his knuckles bruised like he'd been hitting something, but the ring was there. Harry scoffed until he glanced at his hand, then had to do a double take, as though he hadn't seen it before. Like he'd never once noticed there was a wedding band on his finger. 

“How...” he muttered, then looked quickly at Cisco. “How did you do that?” he demanded, disbelieving, obviously thinking it was some sort of trick. Cisco swallowed. 

“I put it there, when we did the whole 'I do' thing, remember?” He smiled lightly, “Everyone was there. Jesse and Barry and Caitlin and just... everyone. Remember? It was perfect and sappy. And you wore a suit even though you don't like dressing up, because you knew I wanted you to. Harry, come on man, tell me you remember...” He couldn't help the slight desperation in his voice. Harry was steadily frowning at him, which wasn't helping to put Cisco at ease any.

“I don't know... any of those people. Or... or you.” He whispered, putting a hand up to his head and turning, as though just looking at Cisco was beginning to give him a headache. “Just stop!” He growled out. 

“Jesse, you have to remember Jesse!” Cisco found himself blurting, stepping forward again. “Your daughter? She means everything to you! You went through hell to get her back from Zoom, man! Remember!” He stopped when Harry whirled around, clenching both hands and his jaw at Cisco. “Jesse is brilliant and beautiful and loves you relentlessly! She brings out the best in you without even trying!” He felt his lips quivering, his eyes stinging. 

“Stop!” Harry yelled at him, both hands going back up to his head, eyes squeezing shut for a moment. 

“And Maggie! She's so much like you. So damaged, but you bring out the best in her! She's ours now, our kid, yours and mine!” Cisco found himself desperately pushing, “You took that broken girl and you put her back together and we gave her a family! A life! Our life... it's amazing and messy and crazy and perfect, because of you!” He motioned earnestly at Harry. “Because you never give up and you never give in, and no one has ever fought for me like you have and you believe in us completely! You believe in me! And god, when you look at me? It's like you see straight into my soul, and I have never been happier with anyone than with you, Harry! You and Jesse and Maggie and our cat... our stupid cat!” He choked out, running a hand madly through his hair. “You're everything, dammit, to all of us, don't you see that?! You have to remember!”

“I can't!” Harry yelled then, and moved in on Cisco, so damn fast that he almost instinctively put his fists up. But Harry stopped just short, glaring down at Cisco in the dancing shadows, tall and foreboding and pissed. “This place... I don't know....” he clenched his hands in the air, as if grasping for answers that were completely out of his reach, words said through gritted teeth, “It won't let me!”

“Then leave...” Cisco choked out, getting right up into Harry's space and making the taller man falter slightly. “With me. Right now. Leave.” At first, Harry just searched his face. Then he chuckled. A terrible, sorrowful sound. 

“You don't get it, I've tried! There's no way out, I can't le-” and suddenly he stopped talking, and his face went momentarily blank, even his eyes went empty. Like someone had pressed the stop button on Harry.

“H-Harry?” Cisco whispered, shocked and confused. But then Harry blinked, and it was his turn to look confused. 

“Who are you?” Harry asked, then stepped back quickly. “How did you get in here?!” He demanded angrily. _No, no no no no._ Cisco inwardly panicked. This wasn't working, trying to get through to him with words wasn't what Harry needed.

_Remind him who he is. Show him. Give him back what he's losing._

That was _her_ voice in his head all of a sudden, the Watcher, he was sure of it. _Show him, huh? Alright..._

“That's it, I'm yours! You hear me! I'm yours, and you're mine!” Cisco blurted, then simply moved in on Harry before he could change his mind or give his husband a chance to get away. “Remember, dammit!” And he reached up and grabbed Harry by the face with both hands, kissing him before Harry could have the chance to realize what was happening...

* * *

"Souls tend to go back to who feels like home..." -Unknown

* * *

Cisco was absently stroking Maggie's hair. 

She was passed out, half curled into his side on the short couch Barry had dragged into the medlab from the day room. Jesse was asleep on the gurney with Harry, flush up against her father's side, arm draped completely around his torso, hand gripping his ribs for dear life even in her sleep, her head tucked up onto his shoulder, the rail pulled up on the side to keep her from falling off. 

Everything was quiet. Comfortably so. The soft whir of the venitaltion system mingled lightly with the rare sounds of the girls' breathing. The medlab was mostly dark, with only the few monitors needed for Harry offering dim light. Caitlin was asleep in one of the guest rooms. Barry and Iris had gone home. 

As far as the world was concerned, it was the dead of night and everyone and everything with half a sense should have been asleep. But Cisco Ramon apparently just didn't have good sense right then.

Because all he wanted to do was watch Harry.

After Cisco had kissed him in that hell, he didn't remember much of what happened after. It was all just confusing colors and sensations that were simultaneously overwhelming and intoxicating, and all tasting like Harry when he thought about it, which did really incredible things to Cisco that made him have to push the memory aside because the feel of it was a little too much for his body to handle for the time being. 

Cisco'd woken in pain and startled, his back reminding him what reality was. And more than that, the feel of Harry's hand on his arm bringing him straight back to the present. Because Harry had come back with him, somehow... some miraculous wonderful way that Cisco just couldn't remember. Harry was back, he was home. Confused, because he had no memory after falling asleep with Cisco on the mountain that first night. Worried, because he somehow instantly felt that Cisco was in pain. And then shortly after, extremely exhausted because he refused to let Cisco go until he healed him. 

Explaining everything in detail came later. The bugs and the in-between and the Watcher and the hell Harry was in. And for the most part, Harry took it in stride. He trusted them, trusted Cisco, which was why he had no reason to doubt the validity of any of it. But Cisco could see the uncertainty laced in Harry's luminscent gaze. An uncertainty that stuck with him, settled into the lines around his eyes whenever he looked at Jesse or Maggie, whenever Cisco would reach out and touch him. 

Eventually, Harry passed out, unable to keep sleep at bay. The girls refused to leave his side, despite the fact that Caitlin's battery of tests showed that, other than being weak and generally exhausted, he was perfectly healthy. Cisco couldn't blame them. He didn't want to leave, either. Couldn't. 

So he sat there in the mostly dark, stroking Maggie's hair, watching the steady rise and fall of Harry's chest, letting calm take over the strange panicked state he'd been in since all this had begun.

“You're staring.” Harry's soft but raspy voice met his ears and he turned his gaze from Harry's chest to his face, smiling slowly when he saw Harry watching him. “Again.” Those words. God, those words tugged just about every string Cisco had to tug, and he was grinning and blushing haplessly. 

“Can you blame me?” He motioned with his free hand to Jesse. “Picture perfect.” Harry curled his arm a little more around Jesse's sleeping form without looking, but managed to crack a slight smile of his own. They stared at each other's eyes for a long, precious few moments before Harry spoke again.

“You found me, Cisco.” He whispered, reaching then with his free hand. Cisco didn't need to be asked or coaxed. The instinct was just too strong to reach back. Their fingers interlocked easily. “I know I don't remember it... but I know what you did for me.” He took in a deep breath, filling his chest with air, letting it out as slow as possible. “That place I was in, what you described... how I... how I was...” He clenched his jaw.

“Harry, you don't have to.” Cisco said softly. But Harry shook his head once.

“Yes I do.” He squeezed Cisco's hand lightly. “That place, losing you, all of you.” Cisco watched tears well up in Harry's eyes, and he caught his breath at the sight of it. “That's my worst fear. That I'll lose you all. That I'll forget. I began to, on 714... and I don't... I don't want to forget.” He squeezed his eyes shut, and the tears just rolled out and down, hitting the pillow. It was only then that Cisco realized both Jesse and Maggie were awake. Because Jesse was hugging her father tighter, tears of her own in her eyes, and Maggie was moving, climbing onto the bed, startling Harry slightly. 

He hadn't expected that. But when Maggie curled into his other side, he just wrapped his other arm around her, eyes wet with tears. Cisco stood, moving to his side, running his fingers through Harry's hair. “We won't let that happen, you hear me?” He said, his own voice thick with tears of his own, salty lines trailing freely as he leaned down and pressed his lips warmly to Harry's for a moment. “You're ours. And we're yours. And nothing is going to take us from each other.” He whispered, pressing their foreheads together, one hand on Maggie's back to steady her. Harry let out a shaken sigh, closing his eyes again.

And in the relative quiet, the subtle dark, their seemingly odd little family held on for dear life like that till they all had to move or risk permanent achey bodies. Reassuring, reaffirming, believing and hoping and loving and never giving up because that's what they did. That's what Harry taught them to do. That's who they were. 

Metas, mechanical bugs, Changes, in-betweens, the multiverse and whatever crazy town curve balls were thrown their way, nothing would change who they really were to each other. Nothing would tear them apart. Because they had the greatest weapon and defense of all. The Watcher had been right about a lot, but she'd been really right about that most of all. 

As cliché as it sounded, as overly romantic as it seemed, love really was the most powerful thing they had. And as the next few days went by, and Harry got his strength back, Cisco let himself be reminded of that with every stolen look, every whispered 'I love you', every fragile touch, every captured moment. 

And Harry? Well, the uncertainty in his eyes was gone. Replaced by a fierce determination, and a really insatiable need to just soak in every memory he could. No matter how little, no matter how seemingly inconsequential, it was like Harry wanted to remember it all. And Cisco couldn't blame him for that. He'd probably do the same if he'd been in Harry's shoes. 

Cisco was standing in their kitchen, watching Maggie attempt to get a collar with a bell on Eureka, doing his very best not to giggle at the unique wrestling match when he felt familiar and welcome hands slide around his hips, onto his stomach, pulling his back into a very firm and warm body. “You should do that more.” Harry whispered into Cisco's ear, kissing his temple lightly afterward, making Cisco sigh uncontrollably before turning in Harry's arm to stare up into those damn delicious luminous eyes. 

“Do what?” He asked, curling his hands behind Harry's neck. The smile that Harry gave him practically made Cisco's knees turn into Play-doh. 

“Smile.” He said easily, pushing Cisco's rear against the counter and leaning his frame into his with an earnest comfort. Cisco grinned like an idiot. “There, perfect.” Harry stated, then kissed him. No more words. Just warm, deliciously soft and needy lips, moving slow, almost greedily, tongues sliding against each other in a far too memorable but easily replayed way until they heard a yelp from Maggie, pulling apart. Cisco turned and Harry peered over his head.

She was on her back, collar still in one hand, her ponytail half pulled out, staring up at the ceiling. “I give up!” She blurted out, practically throwing her arms out in a tantrum and tossing the collar, which somehow managed to land perfectly on the coat rack, jingling as it hung in place, which made her eyes go wide. “Oh my god, did you guys see that?!” She turned onto her belly, grinning. “That was awesome!”

And Harry laughed. A real, hearty laugh. Maggie laughed, too. And Cisco found himself looking from her to Harry, head to toe fuzzy with indescribable warmth. He shook his head a little when Harry looked down at him. Harry, still smiling, raised a brow. “What?” He asked softly, and Cisco just grinned again.

“I love you.” He said, and didn't have to wait to hear Harry say it back. He already knew. By the way Harry looked at him just before Cisco grabbed him by the shirt and kissed him soundly for good measure, both men ignoring the 'Eeew, come on, Dads!' from Maggie. 

Love. The most amazing, cliché weapon in existence. And Cisco Ramon couldn't be more grateful that he had it with Harrison Wells...

* * *

"I only ever thought there were two kinds of love: the kind you would kill for and the kind you would die for. But you, my darling... you were the kind of love I would live for..." -Unknown

**Author's Note:**

> (To be continued...)


End file.
